‘We want to be that team’: Could Mark Scheifele’s young Winnipeg Jets be the next Toronto Maple Leafs?

Well, that’s not entirely accurate. With the Winnipeg Jets’ season done, the Kitchener, Ont., native has gone from hockey player to hockey fan and is watching a lot of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And while it’s frustrating not to be playing at this time of year, the second straight year Scheifele’s missed the playoffs, it’s encouraging to see a team that finished 30th overall a year ago have success against the Presidents’ Trophy winners.

It means that Jets, who finished in ninth place and were seven points out of a playoff spot, might not be far behind from doing the same.

“We want to be that team,” Scheifele said in a one-on-one interview with Postmedia in Toronto, where he was promoting street-hockey awareness for the non-profit organization Play On! “You see that any team can go on that run. You see that a team can go from last to the playoffs, and that’s something that we have to strive for. We can’t look at ourselves as young or inexperienced. Toronto did that and they’re just as young as we are.

“We have to believe in ourselves. Just missing out on the playoffs can’t be satisfactory. We have to be better than that.”

For Scheifele, who had a career year with 32 goals and 82 points, there is reason to be optimistic. He established himself as one of the elite centres in the NHL this season, finishing seventh in scoring. Along with Calder Trophy finalist Patrik Laine (36 goals and 64 points) and Nikolaj Ehlers (25 goals and 64 points), he headlines a core group that has yet to reach its full potential.

And yet, it’s the same old story for the Jets, where “just wait until next year” is beginning to sound like a broken record. But while he admitted he’s frustrated and a bit impatient, he’s far from feeling like Jack Eichel in Buffalo.

“It’s tough,” said Scheifele. “You want the team to do well, but you look at your overall success and you weigh that with the team’s success. You have to take the subtle victories. Obviously, you always have to be optimistic. Once you start getting negative, things aren’t going to go good for you. But you do get frustrated.

“You want to win and you want to win now. Obviously, this league is a really good league and it’s tough to make the playoffs. A lot of good teams don’t make the playoffs every year, but for me, you can’t get frustration fully into your head, because you always have to keep working and pushing.

“That’s something that our team has to realize. It’s not management, but as players we have to know that we can’t be complacent with either individual success or just going through the motions.”

To that end, the Jets’ alternate captain isn’t taking any time off these days. Next week, he heads to Paris, where he will represent Canada at the world hockey championship. Six other players from the Jets — Denmark’s Ehlers, Americans Jacob Trouba, Connor Hellebuyck and Andrew Copp and Canadians Josh Morrissey and Eric Comrie — are also going.

It’s the third time Scheifele’s played in the tournament, having won gold in Russia last year, where he scored four goals and nine points in nine games. And while no one would have blamed him for a much-deserved break, it was a no-brainer for a player who wants to use the tournament as a springboard for an even better year next season.

“Sometimes the way I look at it is the better I become, the more it will push other guys to become better,” said Scheifele. “That’s what a leader does. It’s not about what you say, it’s what you show. Playing with a new coach under a new system at the worlds, playing with different players, playing against better players, all those experiences are beneficial.

“I want to be one of the best players in the world. That’s the goal.”

Normally, the world hockey championship would be an audition for something bigger. Last year, it was the World Cup of Hockey, a tournament where Scheifele played on a top line with Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews for Team North America. This year, the audition should have been for the Olympics.

But with commissioner Gary Bettman already announcing that NHLers will not be participating in South Korea in 2018, that dream is already over before it even begun.

“Oh, very disappointing,” Scheifele said of the NHL’s decision. “You never know when the opportunity will be there again. A guy like (Steven) Stamkos got hurt right before the Olympics (in 2014) and now would be on the team again and will miss another one. Going to the Olympics is a really big honour. I was pretty rattled about that news.”

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‘We want to be that team’: Could Mark Scheifele’s young Winnipeg Jets be the next Toronto Maple Leafs?

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